Sour Alba » Sour Alba by Stewart Kirkpatrick – journalism, Scotland, the web, politics

Labour wins Glenrothes by-election

Stewart — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:51:17 +0000

Labour's Lindsay Roy

Labour’s Lindsay Roy has won the Glenrothers by-election, beating the SNP by more than 6,700. The Nats had been widely expected to win the seat despite the fact that it was once safe Labour territory and is next door to Gordon Brown’s constituency.

The result is important for two reasons:

It makes it more likely that Gordon Brown will lead Labour into the next UK General Election. While a challenge has been unlikely since the arrival of the credit crunch, a defeat in his kailyard would have weakened him within the party.
It makes an independent Scotland less likely – as the result marks a serious brake on the momentum of the Scottish National Party.

While the above seems like good news for Labour and bad news for the Nats, it sets up some interesting questions for the next UK general election. The Tories’ David Cameron has until lately had the beating of Brown – though the credit crunch has shown up the PM’s strengths and the former Bullingdon Club man’s weaknesses.

If Cameron gets back on top and enters Downing Street – as seems likely from the polls – then it’s a totally different ball game. Scots do not have a fond memory of Conservative government and its return would provide a boost to the cause of independence that can only be guessed at.

Scottish Labour: yet-to-be-elected leader must go

stewart @ w00tonomy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:55:10 +0000

The stunning events in Glasgow East show that Scottish Labour needs to hurry up and choose its new leader so the new incumbent can be hounded out in the wake of the party’s shaming defeat.

Gordon Brown out on the wiley, windy moors?

stewart @ w00tonomy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:22:28 +0000

Apparently Gordon Brown thinks he’s Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. The similarities are obvious : Byronic anti-hero driven wild by untamed passion and uncharismatic, prudence-obsessed bureaucat with a penchant for dropping his jaw open like a broken glove box.

Of course, he doesn’t say he is really like Heathcliff. No, even when it comes to literary characters Brown dithers. “Maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff.”

An older, wiser Heathcliff. Wiser? Has Brown actually read the book? It is precisely because he lacks wisdom that Heathcliff is Heathcliff. A wiser Heathcliff makes as much sense as a more metrosexual James Bond, a more trustworthy Iago or a more laconic Stephen Dedalus.

But maybe Brown is truly like Heathcliff in one way. Perhaps we have misjudged him. Perhaps he is enacting a dark vengeance , the culmination of years of savage plotting after being spurned. Sadly for Labour, it was the party itself that spurned him by keeping out of the top job for so long. Now, he is exacting his revenge, wrecking its chances utterly.

I don’t know who’s tapping at the window but, sadly for Britain, David Cameron is hammering on the door. Given that Picture Of Dorian Thatcher scenario, you can’t blame Brown for retreating into fiction.

Sour Alba podcast: Wendy Alexander, Nicol Stephen, donkey sex

stewart @ w00tonomy — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:53:41 +0000

My second podcast. Longer than the first, now with added gratuitous and unsubstantiated claims of bestiality. Maybe.